Tokyo's Asian Lineup Turns Its Attention to Family
Family is the common thread in this year's Asian selection at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Programmer Ishizaka Kenji chose films centred on family relationships for the 39th edition, and he told Variety that filmmakers across the region feel a shared urge to revisit family and sibling bonds, even as world politics grows unsettled.
Ishizaka has programmed Asian cinema at the festival since 2007. He also oversees Asian Future, the Tokyo competition for young filmmakers from across the continent. This year that section has 10 titles.
The list runs from Southeast Asia to Central Asia and East Asia. Katski Flores' Edjop comes from the Philippines, and Ariani Darmawan's Jani Be Good from Indonesia. Kim Hyun-min's On the Heights is from South Korea, while Chezhiyan's The Paper Flower comes from India. Azamat Shargyn's Shyrmauyq represents Kazakhstan, and Kujiraoka Hironori's Saravah represents Japan.
Ishizaka also singled out Taiwan and South Korea for the strength of their public funding and institutional backing. Public funding means money from government bodies and state-backed institutions that helps pay for films. He pointed to those two places as examples of how that support can help filmmakers keep making work.
The festival has a new addition this year too. CROSSCUT ASIA+ is a new section, set up in partnership with The Japan Foundation, the Japanese organisation that promotes cultural exchange abroad. Its arrival adds another route for Asian films to reach Tokyo audiences.
Why does a programming choice like this matter beyond the festival itself? Festivals are also marketplaces. Sales agents, the people who sell films to cinemas and streaming services in other countries, use these screenings to spot titles. A film chosen for a lineup in Tokyo can later turn up on screens far from Japan, often a year or two after its premiere.
The Tokyo festival runs as a showcase for the region, and this year's theme is clear from the lineup itself. Ten young filmmakers in one competition, and a family-centred thread running through the wider programme, tell the audience where the programmers have looked. Whether these films reach cinemas beyond the festival will be decided in the months after the screenings end, by buyers and distributors who are not yet on the record.
